Last year I tried to do a weekly feature throughout the holidays highlighting deals on the latest toys and tech gadgets. I’m going to try to bring it back this year. For this week, I’m going to talk about the Leap Pad. After owning it for about a year, I think we can give a good review on the Leap Pad 1.

Click to see more Leap Pad apps and games.

I was one of the moms (hangs head in shame) who bought into all the hysteria over the Leap Pad last year. However, in my defense, my parents actually purchased it for the boys, not me. And, really, it is a toy that gets played with almost every day. I have gone through bouts of buyer’s remorse over it, but all in all, they really enjoy it. Last year, of course you could only get the Leap Pad 1, so that’s what we have. The Leap Pad 2 was not available until this fall. My boys do not have unlimited access to ours. I keep it “high up” and they have to ask to use it. It is essentially a video game and a mini-video player all in one, so I don’t want them spending endless hours on it every day.

Here is what I really like about the Leap Pad–

• It’s awesome for the car, waiting in waiting rooms, restaurants and situations like that where I need them to be polite and quiet.
• It’s just for kids, so by default the only things you can download onto it are kid-friendly (unlike an ipad or regular tablet)
• Nice variety of learning videos, games and activities.
• Not everything on it is a Disney or Nickelodeon or other branded character. There are no-name kid activities on there that they really enjoy.

Here is what I wish I could change about the Leap Pad–

• The apps and games are much more expensive than what  you pay for a regular tablet and they can only be purchased in one spot. No competition, high prices, very disappointing.
• On ours, the back plates that cover the batteries fall off constantly. Right now, though, Amazon has the gel case for $9 or FREE when you buy a Leap Pad 1, so I ordered it. Hopefully that will keep the back on.
• Since you can only get apps in one spot (from the Leap site), I have no doubt that they are collecting our user data when we get apps. I don’t like that.
• We got through tons of batteries, I wish it was rechargeable.
• I wish it shut off automatically when my kids just set it aside.

So, there is the Leap Pad 2. What is different, and what does that mean to us?

• Twice as much memory. I don’t think we are in danger of running out of memory on the Leap Pad 1.
• More processing. Again, I haven’t found this to be a problem. Ours works and boots just as quickly as we need it to.
• Camera is now front and back, instead of just the back. Not really necessary, they like the camera just fine and have fun with it.
• Rechargeable. A ha! Now we’re on to something. I wish ours was.
• And the battery life is an extra hour longer.
• Price difference: On average, you will pay $20-$30 more for a Leap Pad 2 or bundle set, as compared to the Leap Pad 1.

The only thing that would really interest me is the rechargeable battery. I have a charger and rechargeable batteries from Energizer, I just need to get better about using it regularly. All the games and apps are the same. But, if you don’t own one yet, I would pay the extra for the Leap Pad 2. Because we have easily gone through $20-$30 worth of batteries in one year, so that will pay for itself. Unless I could sell ours gently used and get back what we paid for it, I can’t justify spending another $100+ to save money on batteries. Now, here are some places to shop for the Leap Pad 1 and Leap Pad 2. Please keep in mind if you are finding this post at a later date, these offers may no longer be valid.

Leap Website: Currently offering 15% off your order of $50 or more.

Kmart: Use code KMART10PSAVINGS to get 10% off entire purchase.

Toys R Us: Currently has 20% off entire order + free shipping.

WalMart: Free shipping on orders of $45+

Amazon: Has the Leap Pad 1 for as low as $60-with the green gel case, a great price. See the whole collection of Leap on Amazon Also on there they have had the $20 app card for $13-$15.

Stay tuned and make sure you follow my blog! We love the Leap Pad and post deals on the apps card and the free apps whenever we can find them.